


History Repeats

by IvoryRaven



Series: Corona Challenge [12]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dark Harry, Dark Harry Potter, Gen, Good Tom Riddle, Harry Potter is a Little Shit, Orphanage, Professor Tom Riddle, Slytherin Harry Potter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:47:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23607019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IvoryRaven/pseuds/IvoryRaven
Summary: Professors Albus Dumbledore and Tom Riddle visit an orphanage to deliver a Hogwarts letter to Mr. Harry Potter.It's quite a familiar situation.
Series: Corona Challenge [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1705024
Comments: 7
Kudos: 342
Collections: Corona Challenge





	History Repeats

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by [DemonufSans](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DemonufSans/pseuds/DemonufSans) in the [CoronaChallenge](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/CoronaChallenge) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
> Au where Tom Riddle is a professor at Hogwarts like he always wanted, Albus and him go to give harry potter his letter at an orphanage and Tom gets to see what he was like as a kid. Basically, he gets a taste of his own medicine and when Albus and Tom are back in the headmaster's office he has to ask his professor a question.
> 
> "Professor?" 
> 
> "Yes, my boy?"
> 
> "I really was a little shit wasn't I?" 
> 
> "Certainly" 
> 
> And then Tom becomes Harry's personal therapist.

“It’s really very unfortunate about his parents,” Albus said as they walked up to the door. “So much potential wasted. And in a muggle car crash, too!”

Tom nodded, agreeing purely for the sake of not getting into an argument with the older wizard while they were in muggle territory.

They knocked on the door, and a plump woman let them inside. “Hello?” she said, curiously.

“Hello, madam,” said Albus, putting on his most grandfatherly smile. Tom had to hold back the urge to sneer - as much as he respected the man, mushy feelings weren’t exactly his thing. Albus was an excellent manipulator. “We’re here about Harry Potter. He’s been here since he was a baby?”

The woman paled. “H-Harry Potter?”

Albus frowned, while Tom’s face remained impassive. “Yes, that’s the one. He is here, isn’t he?”

“Oh - yes, of course. May I ask what it is you’re here for?”

“Might we go into the office?” Albus asked. Well, it was really more like ‘gently demanding’ or ‘ordering’.

“Oh-! Yes, yes, of course!” said the woman, and led them into a scruffy, but clean office with a gray floor and white walls.

Albus sat in a chair in front of the woman’s desk, gesturing that Tom should do the same. “We are here about arrangements for Harry Potter’s future,” he said, as Tom knew he had several times before.

“Are you related to Mr. Potter?”

Albus shook his head. “No, I am a teacher, and so is Mr. Riddle here. He has been offered a place at our boarding school, and we have come to deliver the news.”

Her eyes widened. “Really! Harry going to a boarding school. Which school is it, then?”

“Hogwarts. Very exclusive.”

Her sharp eyes narrowed again. “Oh really? I have never heard of such a place.”

Albus offered her a piece of paper, which Tom had previously enchanted with a variation on the Confundus Charm. She looked at it, and after a few moments’ woozy silence, smiled. 

“This looks quite all right. Why, I do say! Harry going to a boarding school!”

Albus nodded. “Yes. Could you perhaps tell me about Mr. Potter?”

“Oh, yes, I suppose so. He’s a bright child, good marks in his classes. A bit funny, though.” She stopped short. “His acceptance to this… Hogwarts is guaranteed?”

Albus nodded. “It is.”

“Well, he scares the other children. And quite frankly, some of the staff as well. Not a clue how he does it but whenever he gets into an argument with some other child, which doesn’t happen often nowadays, they’re all terrified - something awful happens to the other child very soon after. He fought with Maisy, complained about the way her shoes sounded and wound her up, and the next day she tripped down two flights of stairs and broke her arm! And the same with little William, ‘cept he went out the window. Lucky he landed on the hedge or he’d ‘ave been in a far sight more trouble!”

“I see,” said Albus.

There was a sinking feeling in Tom’s chest. “Might we see the boy?” he asked.

“Yes. If you’ll just follow me…”

The woman led them down a long, gray corridor, with doors down both sides. She stopped in front of one, and knocked. “Harry!”

No one answered, so she opened the door.

A wave of deja vu hit Tom at the room’s appearance. A small bed, with a scant gray blanket. Gray walls, and a bare floor, and an old, dusty wardrobe.

“Visitors, Harry,” said the woman, before she left, quickly closing the door, and leaving Albus, Tom, and this Harry in the tiny room together.

The boy was sitting on the bed, legs crossed, reading a book. He was short, with messy black hair and piercing green eyes. He was dressed in threadbare gray trousers and top that looked to have been worn by at least three children before him.

“Well, hello, Harry,” said Albus, offering his hand for Harry to shake. Tom did the same.

The boy looked wary, but leaned over to shake first Albus’, then Tom’s hand.

“I am Professor Dumbledore,” started Albus in a way that seemed strikingly familiar.

Skepticism lanced the boy’s green eyes. “Professor? You’re from a university, then? Come to examine me? She sent you, didn’t she - to look at me. Tell the truth!”

Albus sighed, and Tom pinched the bridge of his nose. This was all so familiar.

“No, no, I am not a doctor,” said Albus. “I am Professor Dumbledore and I’ve come to offer you a place at Hogwarts School, where myself and Professor Riddle teach. You are welcome there, if you would like to come.”

“You’re lying!” accused Harry, jumping up in his anger. “You think I’m mad and you’ve come to take me to the asylum!”

“I don’t think you’re mad,” said Albus.

“You will not make me go!” shouted Harry. “I will not go!”

“Hogwarts is a school for young people with special abilities, Harry, young people like you.”

“I will not go to a school for mad people! I am not mad!”

Tom watched all this with growing horror. This boy - this Harry Potter… he was just like him!

“I know you’re not mad, Harry. Hogwarts is a school of magic.”

Immediately the boy stopped his rage. “Magic?”

Albus nodded solemnly. “Magic, yes.”

“It’s magic, then, what I can do?” the boy whispered with growing wonder in those striking green eyes.

“What can you do?” asked Tom.

The wonder had transformed into a brilliant gleam, lighting the boy’s eyes up like fireworks. “All kinds of things,” he whispered. “I can make things move without touching them. I can make animals do what I want them to do, without training them. I can make bad things happen to people who annoy me. I can make them hurt if I want.”

Albus and Tom were, for a moment, transfixed in growing horror. This was bad - very bad.

“I am a wizard, then?” asked Harry, and Albus nodded.

“I have always known I am special,” said Harry, twitching with excitement. “More than all the others! Are you wizards, too?”

It was Tom’s turn to nod.

“Prove it, then,” said Harry. “So I know you’re telling the truth.”

Tom opened his palm, and created a ball of glowing fire within it. Tossing it up into the air, he snatched it back up and used its light to scrawl, into the air, ‘I am a wizard.’

Harry’s eyes were wide, and his cheeks flushed with happiness. “I am special,” he whispered to himself. Then he looked greedily at the fire in Tom’s hand; and snatched at it; but he could not hold on to it.

“Teach me to make that!” he demanded.

“You will come to Hogwarts, I assume?” Tom asked coldly.

Harry nodded frantically. “Yes! Yes! Show me that now!”

“Then you will address myself and Professor Dumbledore as either ‘Professor’ or ‘sir.’”

Harry rolled his eyes, then his expression morphed into one of pleading and wonder. “I’m sorry, sir. I meant, please sir, could you show me-? I should very much like to see how you did it, sir. Please, sir?”

Tom smiled, and let the fire go out. “All I do, Harry, is focus on what I want and where I want it. In time, you will learn this, too.”

“Now,” said Albus, “as for your spellbooks and wand, we will go to Diagon Alley. There is a trust fund for orphans such as yourself.” He handed the boy a bulging bag of Galleons, all the money he could possibly need and more. Harry grabbed it greedily and shoved his hand in, scooping out some of the glinting gold coins and letting them slide across his fingers.

“We, did you say - sir?” he asked, staring into Albus’ eyes.

“Yes, Harry.”

“Well, no thanks. I don’t need you, sir. I’ll be fine on my own.”

“If you insist,” said Albus. “Here is the list of things you’ll need, and the directions on the back.”

“Thank you, sir,” said Harry.

“We must be going, Albus,” said Tom, ready to get this unexpected flashback over with. “Good bye, Harry. See you at Hogwarts.”

“See you at Hogwarts,” echoed Harry, still fascinated by the fat bag of Galleons.

Back in Albus’ office, Tom dropped his head into his hands. “He was just like me,” he groaned. “I really was a little shit, wasn’t I?”

Albus nodded. “Yes. Tom. I’m afraid so.”


End file.
